Then What Happened?

So I left off the last post with the moving on the 22nd of September. Because we had some great help from two of my colleagues (one being my old boss) from the office, also our dear friend Nishant from Decatur (now moved to Springfield), and of course Suraj, they were able to get us moved very quickly. Thanks to all that helped. Muki Chacha and family also came from Chicago that evening, and even brought Papa early from Springfield, which was very nice. We all went out to a Mexican restaurant that night, a first for Neeraj and us because we hadn’t try any Mexican restaurants because Taco Bell Zindabad! Anyway, it was pretty good, and we had a good time with all.

That night we hardly slept because everyone was together, and the next morning we were up at 4am. We had a special religious (vaastu pooja) at 6am, so Neeraj had to go and pick up the panditji from the temple and then the pooja began. This is a very normal Hindu tradition to have this ceremony in order to bless those who live in the home, those come into the home, and all that come in touch with us at this home.

We have still been in the process of getting the major stuff setup in the house. Neeraj has been Mr. Blinds as none of our windows were covered when we entered the house. Slowly he has done a great job of getting all that setup properly. I have setup the computer network with two PCs setup. I have been organizing the various photo frames and of course the kitchen as well. Today we made the investment of a lawnmower, and Neeraj had his first experience of cutting grass in 90 degree weather! You will have to ask him how it was.

MBA classes so far have been really good. Both classes have a great professors who have said that they are not here to fail anyone but ensure that all of the students are successfull in learning. That really makes you feel good that you and your professor are working towards one goal throughout the semester. I definitely feel a different atmosphere between graduate level and undergraduate level classes which was the expectation and nice to see that it is happening. Hopefully the rest of the classes will be as positive as these two.

Time passes by very quickly, but many a times I think about many things that happen to us that makes me think “I should write about this”. Most of the times it is the experiences that we face with the various companies, especially now that we are buying and interacting more often with them. For instance, today when we were in the merchandise pick-up area at this store, Sears, these two guys came out with our lawnmower and tried to put it in the trunk. They put it in and saw that it was not going through properly, but not once did they think of other ways they could make this fit. At the end, Neeraj had to tell them why not put it in the backseat, and then one of the guys was like, “uhh ok.” Guess what - it fit properly. There are more examples with many more companies, but its the lack of customer service that companies provide these days that makes me upset. You see it more often these days with airline companies (we were talking about this in our Legal, Ethical Behavior class too this past week) where they could careless the problems their customers go through to get on an airplane. Its the same with travel agents. They could careless about getting you a good deal, but they will do anything, even lie to you (i.e. 4lowfare.com - don’t use it) to get your business. They will even try to charge you extra if you use your credit card when you can go to any regular travel site like Travelocity or Expedia and not be charged at all.

But such is life and until we get more people to realize to take some action, these companies will keep on taking advantage of providing as little customer service as possible to their customers.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.